Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 : Faster than 8 Gen1 & made by TSMC, not Samsung

Last Updated on January 7, 2023 by Nahush Gowda

Qualcomm has announced the latest flagship chip, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 chip. The new 8+ Gen1 is better version of 8 Gen 1 and announced by Qualcomm in an event called “Snapdragon Night”. Along with new 8+ Gen 1 Qualcomm also launched the new Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chip.

With this chip, Qualcomm has moved the chip manufacturer from Samsung to TSMC. This has resulted in the new chip being better in CPU, GPU and more power efficient.

Quick Specs of Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and comparison with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1

Things here are a bit different from usual. Qualcomm with launch of the new 8+ Gen1 chip has changed their chip manufacturer. The chip is made by TSMC and not Samsung. Normally, when the Qualcomm launched the Plus version of their chip, they launch with the same chipmaker who has made the base version of the chip.

In this case, of launching 8+ chip, Qualcomm took different route even though 8 Gen had good market demand. The reason is mainly due to 8 Gen 1 which was made by Samsung Semiconductor having a bit poor power efficient and Yield also has been poor. Samsung has been facing the same issue with their own Exynos 2022 chip as well.

Samsung seems to be trying to correct things with their recent launch of Exynos 1280. But Samsung needs a lot more than this to make their Semiconductor manufacturing at par with TSMC.

The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, on the other hand, has much improved performance in CPU and GPU being while at the same time being more power efficient. Qualcomm has boosted the frequency of both the CPU and GPU.

On CPU front, all the cores have more frequency. The main Cortex-X2 core is now having 7% higher frequency, clocked at 3.2GHz, and meanwhile the mid-core A710 and little-core A510 have their clock speeds even more significantly increases, by around 12% each. They are now at 2.8 GHz and 2.0 GHz respectively.

The GPU has seen its frequency dialed up. The Adreno GPU block in new 8+ Gen 1 has 10% more clock speed than it’s predecessor.

The result of increase in frequency has resulted in better real world performance of Qualcomm 8+ Gen1 processor. The new chip according to Qualcomm performs 10% better in CPU performance and GPU performance.

The use of TSMC 4 nm manufacturing process has also resulted in better power efficiency. According to Qualcomm the 8+ Gen 1 chip has 30% better power efficiency in both CPU and GPU.

Although, the real-world comparison remained to be seen, the information shared by Qualcomm seems to be encouraging.

Availability of 8+ Gen 1 chip and Mobile Phone Brands launching with 8+ Gen 1 chip

Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 will be available on mobile devices from around Q3 of this year 2022.

Also Read: Lenovo ThinkPhone announced at CES 2023 with Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1

The chip is adopted by leading mobile phone brands including ASUS ROG, Black Shark, HONOR, iQOO, Lenovo, Motorola, Nubia, OnePlus, OPPO, OSOM, realme, RedMagic, Redmi, Vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE.